03/05/08 "Raw
Story"
-- - In a
new memoir set
to be published
May 6, the
former commander
of US forces in
Iraq provides
new intimate
details of the
goings-on at
high levels of
the Bush
Administration
in the first
year of the Iraq
war.

His sharp
tongued
conclusion:
"Hundreds of
billions of
taxpayer dollars
were
unnecessarily
spent, and worse
yet, too many of
our most
precious
military
resource, our
American
soldiers, were
unnecessarily
wounded, maimed,
and killed as a
result. In my
mind, this
action by the
Bush
administration
amounts to gross
incompetence and
dereliction of
duty."

An excerpt from
Sanchez's book,
Wiser in
Battle: A
Soldier's Story,
published in
TIME, buries
the quotation on
the third page
of the article.

Sanchez
commanded the US
military in Iraq
from 2003-2004.
The three-star
general was
relieved of his
commander in
2004 following
the Abu Ghraib
scandal, and in
2005, was told
his career was
over and he
wouldn't be
promoted to a
fourth star.

The primary
reason appears
to be his
involvement in
authorizing
harsh tactics
for the
treatment of
Iraqi prisoners.

In a memo
acquired by the
ACLU through a
freedom of
information act
request, Sanchez
authorized
techniques
to be used
against
prisoners which
included
"environmental
manipulation,"
such as heating
or cooling a
room or using an
"unpleasant
smell,"
isolating
prisoners, and
disrupting sleep
patterns.
Sanchez later
denied ever
authorizing
interrogators to
"go to the outer
limits" and
called the ACLU
"...a bunch of
sensationalist
liars, I mean
lawyers, that
will distort any
and all
information that
they get to draw
attention to
their
positions."

Six months after
he was told he
would not
receive a
promotion -- in
April 2006 -- he
says he was
called in for a
meeting with
then-Secretary
of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld.
In his book, he
writes:

"Ric, it's
been a long
time,"
Rumsfeld
said,
greeting me
in a
friendly
manner. "I'm
really sorry
that your
promotion
didn't work
out. We just
couldn't
make it work
politically.
Sending a
nomination
to the
Senate would
not be good
for you, the
Army, or the
department."

"I
understand,
sir," I
replied.

Rumsfeld then
went on to offer
Sanchez a post
in Africa.

In what Sanchez
maintains was an
effort by
Rumsfeld to
shrug off blame
for mistakes in
Iraq's first
year, he says
that the
Secretary penned
a memo which
blamed failures
on him.

"I stopped
reading after I
read that last
statement,
because I knew
it was total
BS," he writes.
"After a deep
breath, I said,
"Well, Mr.
Secretary, the
problem as
you've stated it
is generally
accurate, but
your memo does
not accurately
capture the
magnitude of the
problem.
Furthermore, I
just can't
believe you
didn't know that
Franks's and
McKiernan's
staffs had
pulled out and
that the orders
had been issued
to redeploy the
forces."

Starting to get
a little worked
up," he adds, "I
paused a moment,
and then looked
Rumsfeld
straight in the
eye. "Sir, I
cannot believe
that you didn't
know I was being
left in charge
in Iraq...."

After the
meeting
ended, I
remember
walking out
of the
Pentagon
shaking my
head and
wondering
how in the
world
Rumsfeld
could have
expected me
to believe
him.
Everybody
knew that
CENTCOM had
issued
orders to
drawdown the
forces. The
Department
of Defense
had printed
public
affairs
guidance for
how the
military
should
answer press
queries
about the
redeployment.
There were
victory
parades
being
planned. And
in mid-May
2003,
Rumsfeld
himself had
sent out
some of his
famous
"snowflake"
memorandums
to Gen.
Franks
asking how
the general
was going to
redeploy all
the forces
in Kuwait.
The
Secretary
knew.
Everybody
knew.

He goes on to
detail a report
prepared by the
Pentagon's Joint
Warfighting
Center. The
Pentagon
commissioned the
report -- and it
validated
Sanchez's
assertions that
he was not to
blame and that
decisions had
been made at
other levels.

"Yes, sir.
Our report
validated
everything
you told us
— that
Franks
issued the
orders to
discard the
original
twelve-to-eighteen-month
occupation
deployment,
that the
forces were
drawing
down, that
we were
walking away
from the
mission, and
that
everybody
knew about
it. And let
me tell you,
the
Secretary
did not like
that one
bit. After
we went in
to brief
him, he just
shut us
down. 'This
is not going
anywhere,'
he said.
'Oh, and by
the way,
leave all
the copies
right here
and don't
talk to
anybody
about it.'"

"You mean he
embargoed
all the
copies of
the report?"
I asked.

"Yes, sir,
he did...'

...It turned
out that the
investigative
team was so
thorough,
they had
actually
gone back
and looked
at the
original
operational
concept that
had been
prepared by
CENTCOM (led
by Gen.
Franks)
before the
invasion of
Iraq was
launched. It
was standard
procedure to
present such
a plan,
which
included
such things
as: timing
for
predeployment,
deployment,
staging for
major combat
operations,
and
postdeployment.
The concept
was briefed
up to the
highest
levels of
the U.S.
government,
including
the
Secretary of
Defense, the
National
Security
Council, and
the
President of
the United
States.

And the
investigators
were now
telling me
that the
plan called
for a Phase
IV (after
combat
action)
operation
that would
last twelve
to eighteen
months...

"That decision
set up the
United States
for a failed
first year in
Iraq," he
concludes.
"There is no
question about
it. And I was
supposed to
believe that
neither the
Secretary of
Defense nor
anybody above
him knew
anything about
it? Impossible!
Rumsfeld knew
about it.
Everybody on the
NSC knew about
it, including
Condoleezza
Rice, George
Tenet, and Colin
Powell. Vice
President Cheney
knew about it.
And President
Bush knew about
it."

"In the
meantime," he
adds, "hundreds
of billions of
taxpayer dollars
were
unnecessarily
spent, and worse
yet, too many of
our most
precious
military
resource, our
American
soldiers, were
unnecessarily
wounded, maimed,
and killed as a
result. In my
mind, this
action by the
Bush
administration
amounts to gross
incompetence and
dereliction of
duty."

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